Santa Barbara Conditions Report "Perma-Thread"

[ApneaAddict]

Originally Posted by Michael J

The Islands are Epic!

MJ

This past Saturday I was at the front side of Cruz- Prisoners area. The bugs were very few and far between, but I ended up with one nice one, as well as 8 big scallops and a decent calico. The calicos were swarming (mating?) and the scallops were so abundant that 5 of the 8 were spotted from the surface protruding out from the rocks and taken by smacking them with the heal of my hand to knock them off.

[Namor]

The surf was really up and pounding Moore Mesa tonight. Some good sets were rolling in.

Jeremy

[Michael J]

Originally Posted by ApneaAddict

This past Saturday I was at the front side of Cruz- Prisoners area. The bugs were very few and far between, but I ended up with one nice one, as well as 8 big scallops and a decent calico. The calicos were swarming (mating?) and the scallops were so abundant that 5 of the 8 were spotted from the surface protruding out from the rocks and taken by smacking them with the heal of my hand to knock them off.

Next time for bugs ,go a bit more West

Good luck
MJ.

[Urchin_Diver]

saw a bunch in shallow at yellowbanks the other day. 15ft

[Lompoc Local]

Anyone have a vis report from yesterday/today?

[SLO Motion]

Drove through town last night. There were a gang of squid boats right off the beach at El Capitan Ranch Road......if that means anything to anyone.

[Namor]

Originally Posted by Lompoc Local

Anyone have a vis report from yesterday/today?

From the cliff the Mesa looked like opaque mud yesterday

Jeremy

[Lompoc Local]

Strange that with all this epic weather and no wind that the visibility won't clean up. I am puzzled and a bit frustrated. Going to get out for a bug dive late late tonight and possibly try to spear first thing in the morning - hope conditions are divable. I'll give a report tomorrow of what I see.

Anyone have an opinion as to why the visibility won't clean up for us even with the epic above-surface conditions?

[SBH20Man]

There is some nice viz up the coast but it is hit and miss. Steve (Bowboy) and I went up the line to a bit past Refugio, hitting a variety of spots along the way. The farther up the line the better it got, with some spots having top-to-bottom 25' viz with some haziness. Most of the shallower water where we looked for bugs was real spotty - surgey/sandy in tight to shore, but then opened up quicking once out past the surge zone. I was able to sight-hunt for halibut by looking at the ripples in the sand from the surface in about 20' of water in several places (still didn't do me any good...).

Gorgeous day out there today - fog rolling in from the East, and a bit of east wind in the afternoon, but generally glassy conditions all the way up the coast. If this swell stays down for a few more days we could be looking at some really nice conditions this coming week...

[Namor]

Originally Posted by Lompoc Local

Strange that with all this epic weather and no wind that the visibility won't clean up. I am puzzled and a bit frustrated. Going to get out for a bug dive late late tonight and possibly try to spear first thing in the morning - hope conditions are divable. I'll give a report tomorrow of what I see.

Anyone have an opinion as to why the visibility won't clean up for us even with the epic above-surface conditions?

Well there has been some surf this week, as well as some pronounced tidal swings that move a lot of water.

It seems to me that after a series of very high tides we often have some very poor vis. I've been told that the ultra fine particulate in the decomposing shale along our cliff faces take a long time to settle out once they are floating in the water. The high tides pick up all the shale dust that has fallen since the last full moon and its milky muddy crap vis for a bit.

Also there are a lot of hydroids on some of the older kelp leaves out there; any swell will pull clouds of this material off the kelp and into the water column.

Jeremy

[SBH20Man]

Shot some video today I'll post tomorrow after I pull it from the go Pro. For now here's a shot from my phone that you don't see often along the coast. We came up on a huge pod/school/plethora of dolphins that seemed at first to be working bait but actually seemed to be just socializing.

Dolphins - YouTube

[CitoRat4Ever]

Ran the boat up the coast this afternoon after work. Dove from 4:30-6:30pm. Viz ranged from 10'-30'. Lots of bait, lots of nice sheepsheads and a few larger calicos stalking around the reef. Fog rolled in pretty hard once we passed Campus Pt. and the wind started to pick up after 6. No gamefish seen or heard tonight.

[Namor]

Wow that dolphin pod was rad to see on shore. Reports of good vis have me stoked, im going up the coast tomorrow to look for some

Jeremy

[seabasshunterSB]

Dove M ln. last night from 9pm-12pm. Vis was decent 8-10 maybe better in spots, sand churned up off bottom in areas making it hard to see bugs. Lots of shorts some bigger ones held up too far back in holes making extraction impossible. Big fat 0 on the card!

[SBH20Man]

Here's a quick and dirty video of the varying conditions up near Refugio/El Cap yesterday:

http://youtu.be/ThXNTvl5sTo?hd=1